“Poverty is the worst form of violence.” — Mahatma Gandhi

Almost 22% of the population in India is below its official poverty limit, making this a major obstacle for education of girls. Parents facing economic difficulties respond by removing their daughters from school. Girls are expected to take over household chores or work in the fields to support the family. Some are even forced in to child labor where they are exploited.

The majority of Indian people live in villages, where most of the domestic roles are consciously or subconsciously assumed by women. The potential of women’s active economic role through engagement in, for example, the entrepreneurial or formal sector is grossly undermined. Poor families are doubly affected by this sort of conservative outlook – the opportunity to tap domestically available human resource for income earning is lost; and women’s domestic role continues to be devalued with the consequence that the family remains unable to escape from the poverty trap and support the schooling of daughters.

Poor Sanitation

Lack of toilet at home: A high percentage of homes in villages, don’t have toilets in the their homes. Men being Men, use the public places and farms to openly defecate. Woman unfortunately do not have that option. They have to use the farms but only after sunset and/or before sunrise. If they are unable to maintain this routine, they have to wait throughout the day to wait for next sunset. They have to restrict their diet for whole day.

Woman in villages have very little awareness regarding use of sanitary pads during periods. Women generally use normal clothes which are inconvenient and unhygienic. Girls decide to stay at home on the days of periods (after puberty) and eventually decide to drop-out of school.

Under Nourishment

One of most understated problems facing the Indian girl child is that of poor nutrition. Girls belonging to the poorer families suffer the most. Because of limited incomes it is an unsaid rule that while the male siblings are provided with milk, fruit and eggs, the girl but has to make do with the regular rice and lentil or sometimes even less. It is for this reason that girls are more susceptible to poor health and disease.

Various surveys indicate that women’s caloric content is about 100 calories (per women per day) less than they spend, whereas men show an 800 caloric surplus intake. Women expend a great deal of energy working inside and outside the house, whereas they often have insufficient food.It has also lead to many cases of Death During Childbirth.

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2018-02-03T15:50:23+00:00